1. Field of the invention
The invention relates to a method for monitoring, by means of a monitoring device, a downstream transmission medium which comprises a multiplicity of virtual, asynchronously time-shared transmission channels via which a data flow fed into said transmission medium can be transmitted, which data flow is composed of data cells which are each transmitted via one of said transmission channels and which each comprise a control word group (`header`) containing one or more control words and also an information word group containing one or more information words, which control words are read out in the monitoring device; at least one variable being maintained, in addition, in the monitoring device, which variable is mutated on arrival of a data cell in accordance with a mutation algorithm containing one or more mutation parameters and said mutated variable then being processed to form an assessment signal in accordance with an assessment algorithm containing one or more assessment parameters.
2. Background of the Invention
Such a method is disclosed, inter alia, by the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/472,349. According to the known method, one variable is maintained per transmission channel, namely a counter position value which is incremented on the arrival of a data cell and is compared with a threshold, after which said data cell is transmitted to the downstream transmission medium if the counter position value is less than the threshold or is not transmitted if the counter position is higher than, or equal to, the threshold. According to the known method, only one variable is therefore incremented and processed (evaluated) to form one assessment signal which is then used directly as a control signal which determines whether or not a data cell is transmitted.